27 Apr 2023

Employee Spotlight: Charlotte Tigwell, Project Manager

This month’s #employeespotlight is on our Project Manager, Charlotte Tigwell, who has been part of the cxpartners team for over five years. In this blog, she discusses her transition from Office Manager to Project Manager and how she finds satisfaction in making other people’s work lives easier.

  • Charlotte Tigwell

    Project Manager

    Charlotte Tigwell

Background about you and your experience

I grew up in the Midlands, in a small town near Stratford-Upon-Avon, which is a lovely place to be from because people almost always know where it is (thank you, Shakespeare!).  I went to Cardiff University in the early 2010s.  My degree was in English Literature, with a focus on Russian literature. I wrote my dissertation on trauma in writing from Soviet gulags, which wasn’t the most cheerful topic I could have picked! I spent most of my time at uni producing plays with the university drama society.  We took ourselves extremely seriously, and being involved in student drama brought me some amazing opportunities – I went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival twice, perfected a recipe for fake blood and met my now-husband!

How did you get into Project Management?

I have had a pretty non-linear career journey so far. I took a roundabout route into Project Management and the world of UX Design.

After I finished my first degree, I spent two years training to be a Stage Manager at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.  That period of my life taught me a lot about myself and about the theatre industry. By the time I graduated, I realised that the difficulties within the industry outweighed the things I loved about working in theatre, and I didn’t want to pursue a career in stage management.  That left me at a crossroads, so I started applying for administration jobs to give myself time to consider my next steps.

When I interviewed at cxpartners, I had never even heard of UX Design, and I had to do a LOT of Googling to understand what it was cxpartners actually did. I was coming at it completely green!

I was hired as cxpartners’ new Office Manager in October 2017, and over five years later, I’m still here! My “stopgap” job turned into one I loved at a company where I felt valued and appreciated, and as time went on, I was encouraged to explore the career paths on offer at cx. Whilst I was extremely happy and fulfilled in my Office Manager role (I miss my reception desk to this day!), my line manager and colleagues empowered me to take on managing internal projects like the London office move and refit, which I really enjoyed. Then in March 2020 (in our last week working in the office before Covid), I joined the Google Mobile Labs project.  The plan was for me to support the Programme Manager in a Project Assistant role. But as the programme grew, I took on more and more Project Management responsibilities.  I loved it, and the more I did, the more I realised this was the career path I wanted to be on.

In the Spring of 2022, I made the jump into full-time Project Management, and that’s where I am now.

A photo of Charlotte holding a clipboard and a Champagne flute
Celebrating the London office launch

Why this job?

I have always been interested in jobs that focus on making other people’s work lives easier. If I can help my project team members to do their amazing work more easily by doing my job well, then I’m happy. I get a lot of satisfaction from that! Project management often feels like a behind-the-scenes job, and even though I no longer work in the theatre, that aspect still really appeals to me!

I think it’s also really neat that my job makes our UXers’ and Designers’ jobs easier, and they in turn are doing work to make everyone’s lives easier and better.  I’ve always really liked that about UX in general and my role in it.

What are your career ambitions?

I’m not a big fan of planning too far ahead – I don’t rush into making any decisions about what I want to be doing in five or ten years, as I know from experience that you can be surprised by the turns your career (and life) takes.  I still feel quite new to this role, and it’s exciting to look around at my colleagues who have been working as PMs, Delivery Leads etc., for much longer than me.  I find it inspiring to look at their career paths and trajectories to see the various places you can end up.  At the moment, I’m really happy in the Home and Work Pod and expanding my skills, taking on new projects and learning as much as possible!

What is your favourite thing about being a Project Manager?

What I love about being a PM in the world of UX is seeing clients watching really powerful user research that illuminates issues their users are having.  It’s so impactful for the clients and rewarding for us to see them making the connections in real time between what the participant is saying and the knots in their app/website/product that they haven’t been able to unravel. It’s so satisfying!

What projects have you worked on that have been the most impactful?

Since 2020, I’ve been working primarily on the Google Mobile Labs programme, project managing short-term mini-projects with hundreds of different clients.  I have some really vivid memories of the first few months of lockdown in Spring/Summer 2020 when most of the companies we were working with were being impacted by this new world. We were all navigating brand new challenges, and so were all the people we were conducting user research with.  It felt like an important thing to be doing, to be able to report back from the ‘unprecedented times’ and help such a variety of companies navigate them.

What projects really excite you at the moment?

We’ve just finished a project that involved researching with customers in Portugal, and I found it fascinating how different customer behaviour is there.  There were so many insights into the diverse, country-specific pressures that affect the Portuguese market, and it was so interesting seeing these and being able to hand those insights on to the client.  I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in several international projects, which I love.  The cultural differences between companies and users (and also the similarities!) never stop being cool to me. I love that this is something so valuable we can offer clients with products across multiple regions.

(Sadly, all these interactions have been through various forms of video conferencing – one day, I’d love to get the chance to travel for work again!)

Why do you like working at cxpartners?

cxpartners is such a supportive environment to work in. At most other companies, I would never have had the opportunities that I’ve had to build my career.  Everyone at cx is so generous with their advice and time, and when you’re starting your career, that is so important. I know I’ve benefited from it hugely.

I also appreciate the range of projects we work on; it makes every project different and keeps things feeling fresh.  I don’t think I’d like to work somewhere where every day is the same.

A photo of 3 people carving pumpkins. Charlotte is in the middle, wearing a witches hat and holding up her carved pumpkin
Halloween pumpkin carving in the Bristol office

Why would you recommend it to others?

cxpartners have a knack for hiring people who are not only skilled, but are also good eggs! I feel very lucky to be able to say that I genuinely enjoy working with my colleagues. Everyone here is so passionate about the work we do and how we can improve our own practices and those of other organisations. It’s always inspiring to be around such positive energy, and you learn new things every day working here.

Any advice for people looking to get into Project Management?

My career advice to anyone, in general, would be that what might externally look like a sideways move or a step backwards can so often be progression in disguise.

I think it’s important to hear career stories like mine, as I’ve ended up doing something I never expected, in an industry I didn’t even know about until I was 24.  Even once I’d started working at cxpartners, I wouldn’t have imagined I could end up moving into Project Management. At the point when I decided not to continue in the career I had trained for, I took time to settle into a new job and industry, and I’m so glad I had that period of my life as it resulted in me making career choices that I feel really excited about.

Learn more about Employee Spotlight: Charlotte Tigwell, Project Manager

Alix Vaughan

Reach out to Alix Vaughan

Sales Director

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